The report from the Export and International Payment data released by the CBN also provided a monthly breakdown of the amounts paid for debt servicing in 2023.
In January, the FG spent $112.35 million, $288.5 million was spent in February, and in March, $400.5 million was spent while $92.8 million was spent in April. Further breakdown also revealed that the government spent $221 million and $54 million in May and June respectively.
The huge amount spent on debt servicing comes amid the FG’s struggles to boost its revenue base despite having challenges with revenue generation.
The amount spent for debt servicing in 2023 is projected to surpass the amount spent In 2022 ($2.4 billion) due to many economic factors which may hamper the country's economic growth like the removal of subsidy on petroleum products and the unification of the Naira.
According to the Debt Management Office, (DMO), the steady increase in Nigeria’s debt is due to the continuous borrowing by federal and state governments to fund budget deficits and execution of projects. For the total direct remittances, the CBN has recorded the sum of $952 million as inflow for the first half of 2023.
A breakdown showed that Nigeria recorded $79.18 million in remittances for January and $83.75 million in February 2023.
Remittances for the next few months spiked with March recording $138.62 million, April $150.04 million, and May $202.89 million. The month of June recorded the highest remittance in the first half of 2023 with $297.48 million.